World Cruise - Day 25 - Feb 6 - At Sea

Good morning, sunrise:

I’ve been playing with the lighting (white balance) on my camera to achieve different lighting and intensity of the colors.  Krissie liked that sunrise photo the best.  I have to be very careful not to look directly into the sun when taking sunrise photos, which can damage your eyes when the light is focused through the viewfinder.  So I hold the camera in the general direction, then check the pic on the optical screen to make sure it is aimed and focused directly.

The guy who delivered breakfast to our room was admiring Krissie’s art.  She said she was just a beginner and he said that she should turn professional.  I know I’m biased, but I do really think she has a gift for art.

Karleen, thanks for your comments on enjoying the blog.  I talked to your Mom (Elaine) and her friend (Rose) today and got this pic of them by the pool:

It’s also a good shot of the pool deck at 10:00 in the morning.  Note that it’s a beautiful day, yet most of the chairs are not taken.  You can come pretty much any time of the day and find chairs open and available.  You can see both hot tubs on each side of the pic (and Terry soaking in the hot tub on the right side of the pic).  The pool is not very large.  I did see someone swimming laps in it the other day, but he basically did three strokes, then turned, three strokes, then turned.

We tied for first in trivia this morning with a perfect 20 out of 20.  Here are some of the tougher questions that we got right: What is the process for baking clay called? Firing.  What is the unit of electric current?  Amps (or amperes).  What nationality was Emily Dickinson? American (a lot of teams put English).  What inanimate object was Time’s Man of the Year in 1982?  Personal computer.  What global brand derived its name from the first mate in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick?  Starbucks.  What board game has Gum Drop Pass and Lollipop Lane?  Candy Land.  What were Jason and the Argonauts seeking?  The golden fleece.  Then we lost on the tiebreaker question: How many ____ awards (I forgot the name of the award, but it was something like Mr. Universe) did Arnold Schwarzenegger win?  7 (we put 3).  We didn’t do as well in afternoon trivia with only 13 out of 20, the winning team got 16.  Here are a few that we missed: What is made in saponification?  Soap (we put syrup).  What does a toad and frog use to assist in moving food into the stomach?  Eyes (we put tongue).  What planet has two asteroid clusters circling its orbit?  Jupiter (we put Mars).  Other than Liberia, what other African nation was independent before WWI?  Ethiopia (we put South Africa).

Sonia, I passed along to Emmanuelle the information about swimming with the dolphins at Atlantis Dubai.  If you have any further info, please pass it along and I will get it to her.  Thanks!

Rebekah, we do occasionally get multiple choice questions, but usually only 1 or 2 out of the 20 questions.  Most of the time, you have to know the answer without any choices.  The one question above that was multiple choice (and we missed) was the saponification question (the other multiple choice option was sapphires).

We went to The Chef’s Table for dinner tonight with Ken and Sara.  For a quick background, Ken helped me back in July to get a better cruise fare, which ended up saving us several thousand dollars on our cruise fare.  So I wanted to do something nice for him and Sara.  He had mentioned The Chef’s Table as being something that he really enjoyed on a prior cruise and had highly recommended it, so we made it our treat.  We have been tablemates with Ken and Sara since the beginning of the cruise and they’ve been very helpful with insights into the cruise, since this is their third world cruise.  The dining options for dinner are: Club Restaurant (a/k/a “Main Dining Room” which is where we have eaten every night we have been onboard so far until tonight); Panorama Buffet (a/k/a “The Buffet” where we typically eat for lunch, making a nice salad along with fruit, etc.); room service (although I don’t think many people do room service for dinner); specialty restaurants; Chef’s Table.  The specialty restaurants are Sterling Steakhouse and Sabatini’s.  They are open on alternating evenings and there is a cover charge of $20/pp, which is very reasonable compared to other cruise lines (we were recently on Celebrity and their three specialty restaurants were in the $30-$45/pp range).  The Chef’s Table is limited seating (I think 16 is the max and for ours it was 11 people) and very personalized service.  It is $95/pp, so rather pricey, but over the top in terms of service and what is provided.  All champagne and wine is included in the price, so that actually puts it on par with the more expensive specialty restaurant on Celebrity when you did the wine inclusive package.  And we’ve done similar all-inclusive menus at The Four Seasons that were in the $200/pp range, so it is expensive, yet not exorbitant.  And what is offered by Princess is truly unique and original.  Carlos Rosa, Maître d’Hôtel, checked with us in advance for our dietary restrictions (we don’t eat pork or shellfish, so I gave him a list of what we could and could not eat) and any other requests (I don’t drink alcohol, so they will be providing a special alcohol-free wine for me).  Executive Chef Antonio Cortese was with us the entire night.  It started out with giving us all smocks to wear and we had to wash our hands before entering the kitchen galley.  I got this photo of Chef while he was looking back on some of the food preparations and a dish was being flambéed in the background (look for the first in the area where Chef is looking over his left shoulder):

I love this photo of Chef, it shows his love of the food being prepared and how the staff loves working with him as well:

We are all outfitted in our smocks:

Great carvings on the appetizer table:

Champagne being poured by Carlos and Chef:

Champagne toast by Chef:

Our first appetizer, ahi tuna:

Our second appetizer, puffed cheese:

I was able to catch the flambé right as it lit for the fois gras (which was outstanding!):

Our pic before the start of our main meal:

Our entire group of 10 people for The Chef’s Table: Susan, Dick, Sue, Doug, Linda, Ken, Kris, Brian, Sara and Ken:

This was the palate cleansing course.  Even it was amazingly presented:

Chef brings in the main course.  So much time went into not only the food, but also the presentation.

Our entrée was chateaubriand and was flambéed tableside by Chef.

The pre-dessert course delivered by the Chef and the Sous Chef:

Then we had a pre-dessert course of figs, dates and brie cheese:

The dessert was as much a sculpture to see as much as it was to eat.  The coral was made by hand by the pastry chef.  Chef Antonio said that it took about 6 hours of work to make our 10 desserts:

All in all, one of the best dining experiences of our lives.  A great foodie opportunity.

We went to the late show (we didn’t get out of The Chef’s Table until 10p) to see Lovena Fox.  She sang a lot of show tunes and ended with a couple Tina Turner songs.  She was excellent:

There was a full moon outside as we walked back to our cabin on the promenade deck.

Tomorrow is sea day #3 of 5 on our way to Pago Pago, American Samoa on Friday.